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Indian equity benchmarks fell for second straight session on Wednesday dragged by losses in Finance, FMCG and Banking shares amid weaknesses from global markets. Markets made gap-down opening and traded in red for most part of the session, as traders remained cautious with Rating agency Crisil’s statement that States' indebtedness will remain high this fiscal at 33 per cent, which is only a notch below the record high of 34 per cent of their gross domestic products in FY21, as tax buoyancy will be offset by higher revenue expenditure and capital outlays. Traders took note of commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that measures to reduce compliance burden by simplifying and decriminalising several laws can have a multiplier effect on ease of doing business.

However, the market witnessed some positive movements in late hour of trading session but failed to hold gains and ended lower, even as rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) statement that high-frequency indicators suggest a strong rebound during the July-September quarter after a steep contraction in activity in the previous three months on the back of a severe Covid-19 wave. The agency retained India’s economic growth projection at 9.5 per cent for the current fiscal year. Traders also overlooked as Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya’s statement that India and the US are global partners and need to work collaboratively in reforming the global health architecture, whose fault lines have become amply visible during the current pandemic. Meanwhile, the government has again extended the existing foreign trade policy (FTP) for another six months till March 31 next year. Earlier, it had extended the FTP (2015-20) until September 30 this year due to the COVID-19 crisis.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday on jitters over inflation and signs of slowing economic growth. Investors looked ahead to the release of the manufacturing, non-manufacturing and Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers' indexes. European markets were trading higher, as the European Commission said that its economic sentiment indicator, an aggregate measure of business and consumer confidence, rose to 117.8 in September from 117.6 in August, beating forecasts for a small decline. Back home, on the sectoral front, some of the aviation industry stocks were trading under pressure as government extended the ban on scheduled international flights till October 31. Gems and jewellery sector too were in focus as the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) said gems and jewellery exports rose to a record Rs 24,239.81 crore in August on strong demand for the coming festive season and the removal of entry restrictions. The overall gems and jewellery exports stood at Rs 13,160.24 crore in August 2020 while in August 2019 the total shipments stood at Rs 20,793.80 crore.

Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 254.33 points or 0.43% to 59,413.27 and the CNX Nifty was down by 37.30 points or 0.21% to 17,711.30.     

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 59,678.66 and 59,111.41, respectively and there were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.    

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.62%, while Small cap index was up by 0.40%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 3.87%, Power up by 3.52%, PSU up by 2.88%, Metal up by 2.48% and Realty up by 1.21%, while Finance down by 0.70%, FMCG down by 0.57%, Bankex down by 0.54%, Capital Goods down by 0.46%, Consumer discretionary down by 0.41% and Auto down by 0.37% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 6.52%, Power Grid Corporation up by 6.18%, Sun Pharma up by 4.09%, SBI up by 3.37% and Titan Company up by 1.23%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.96%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.75%, Asian Paints down by 1.72%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.63% and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.45% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that all efforts and measures to reduce compliance burden by means of simplification, elimination and decriminalisation of several laws can have a transformative impact and multiplier effect on ease of doing business. He said reduction of compliance burden is about trust in every business, person and citizen.

Goyal has stated that in the last seven years, several such measures have been taken due to which there is an improvement in competitiveness, innovation, and ease of doing business. To reduce these burdens, he said that every ministry, department and states were asked to conduct a comprehensive review of compliances under their purview to understand their relevance and rationale and undertake a complete process re-engineering to eliminate burdensome compliances.

The objective set for this comprehensive exercise was to improve ease of living and ease of doing business by simplifying, rationalizing, digitizing and decriminalizing government to business and citizen interfaces across all ministries/departments and states/UTs. This is being done by a four-pronged strategy, including elimination of compliance burden, digitization: creation of online interfaces and decriminalisation of certain laws.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 17,781.75 and 17,608.15 and there were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 6.40%, Coal India up by 6.22%, Power Grid Corporation up by 5.68%, Sun Pharma up by 4.52% and Indian Oil Corporation up by 4.03%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 2.05%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.80%, Asian Paints down by 1.77%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.69% and Eicher Motors down by 1.49% were the top losers.

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 60.34 points or 0.86% to 7,088.44, France’s CAC increased 80.80 points or 1.24% to 6,587.30 and Germany’s DAX increased 161.70 points or 1.06% to 15,410.26.

Asian markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday due to heavy selling pressure tracking slide on Wall Street overnight amid heightened inflation woes. Concerns around Evergrande’s debt crisis and widening power crunch in the world's second-largest economy China also weighed on market sentiments. China Evergrande announced it would raise over one-and-a-half billion US dollars by offloading part of Shengjing Bank in an attempt to meet its enormous financial obligations. Chinese shared declined ahead to the release of the manufacturing, non-manufacturing and Caixin manufacturing PMIs on Thursday. Meanwhile, Japan’s former foreign minister Fumio Kishida won a ruling Liberal Democratic Party leadership election, virtually ensures that Fumio Kishida would become next prime minister within days.

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